CTR’s Food Pantry takes a new approach

Did you know that CTR’s Food pantry started out the year serving about 16 families each month? The number of people in need of the Food Pantry’s resources is growing, according to staff ministry leader Tracy Komassa. “We have seen an increase in the number of families coming to CTR’s Food Pantry in the summer and now the fall months, and we’re getting many more voice mails requesting food,” she says.

Faces behind the forms

In order to meet people’s physical as well as the spiritual hunger, the Food Pantry team is taking a new approach to how people are served by consolidating the food pickup hours to just one day a week. The idea is to ensure that families and volunteers can meet face to face and begin to develop personal relationships with the families while helping them find community resources they may not know about.

Komassa says many of these families have never been inside our doors before.

“We want them to feel comfortable with us and know that we here to help. By getting to know them, our volunteers are also better able to meet additional practical needs as well as their spiritual needs. We are open to giving them tours of our church and hope they feel welcomed,” Komassa says.

The need

CTR’s Food Pantry Team has almost a dozen volunteers—not nearly enough to handle the influx of food and people in need. Komassa says it would be awesome if more volunteers could be available during the new Food Pantry Hours on Tuesdays from 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. or 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

As for food, the pantry can always use donations to help meet the hunger need in the Valley. “Most of us think of canned goods, but what we always run short of is the grains like boxes of breakfast cereal, pastas and rice,” Komassa says.

If you can help, please call 730-8383 ext. 416.